President Barack Obama pretends to be caught in Spider-Man's web as he greets the son of a White House staffer in the Outer Oval Office on October 26. Picture: Pete Souza/White House Source: Supplied

TIME magazine has named US President Barack Obama as its person of the year for 2012 - a year in which he which he won re-election and even fought Spider-Man in the White House.

The venerable American news magazine said the United States is in the midst of huge cultural and demographic changes and Mr Obama is both the symbol and in some ways a driving force behind the transformation.

It also released a photo essay of the president taken by White House photographer Pete Souza, the highlight of which was a picture of Mr Obama pretending to be caught in Spider-Man's web as he greets the son of a White House staffer.

The magazine noted that Mr Obama was the first president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to win more than 50 per cent of the vote in two straight elections and the first since 1940 to be re-elected despite a jobless rate above 7.5 per cent.

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Mr Obama beat Republican Mitt Romney soundly in November's election to win a second four year term.

Barack Obama celebrates with the party faithful in Chicago after winning another four years in the White House.

"In 2012, he found and forged a new majority, turned weakness into opportunity and sought, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union," said Time, which named Mr Obama person of the year in 2008 when he became America's first black president.

In an interview with Time, Mr Obama said his re-election "may have been more satisfying a win than 2008".

"We've gone through a very difficult time," Mr Obama told the magazine.

"The American people have rightly been frustrated at the pace of change, and the economy is still struggling, and this president we elected is imperfect, and yet, despite all that, this is who we want to be. That's a good thing."

This picture released by the White House on November 16, 2012 shows US President Barack Obama jokingly mimicking US Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney's "not impressed" look while greeting members of the 2012 US Olympic gymnastics teams. Picture: White House Photo/Pete Souza

The short list for the honour included Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head for advocating for girls' education.

It also included Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Last year, "The Protester" got the award.

Time's "Person of the Year" is the person or thing that has most influenced the culture and the news during the past year for good or for ill. In 2010, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg received the honour.

Barack Obama has been named Time's Person of the Year for 2012.

Other previous winners have included US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Bono and President George W. Bush.

In the past Time has showed its editorial teeth by naming sinister figures - Adolf Hitler in 1938 and Joseph Stalin both in 1939 and 1942.

But since the leader of Iran's Islamist revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, graced the cover in 1979, the magazine has tended to shy from picks that might upset its mostly American readership. A notable absence was al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Mr Obama could not be a less controversial choice.

Time said he swept to the head of the pack because of his ability to grasp the demographic and social changes shifting the United States.

"The truth is," Mr Obama told Time, "that we have steadily become a more diverse and tolerant country that embraces people's differences and respects people who are not like us. That's a profoundly good thing. That's one of the strengths of America."

Time said Mr Obama was about "convergence of past and future" and said his second term would see him being "more assertive, more personal, more willing to risk his political capital for what he truly believes".

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